Buhari: In 16 years, we didn’t save for a rainy day

President Muhammadu Buhari has yet again blamed the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the current economic woes of the country.

Speaking when he received Bernard Aliyu, president of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), at the presidential villa in Abuja on Monday, Buhari lamented the fiscal indiscipline of “the past 16 years”, during which PDP was in power and the oil business boomed.

He reiterated the determination of his government to correct the anomalies of the past, saying Nigeria has potentials but a lot is required to ensure that “we don’t remain permanently at the level of potentials”.

“If Ethiopia is sustained largely by her airline industry, we have greater potentials here. But we must move out, engage with the rest of the world, as we need to re-establish the integrity of this country. We need to rebuild this country again,” he said.

He observed that for the greater part of the last 16 years, oil sold above $100 per barrel, yet the country had little to show for it.

“In the First Republic, more enduring infrastructure was built with meagre resources. But in the past 16 years, we made a lot of money without planning for the rainy day.

“We showed a lot of indiscipline in managing our economy, and that is why we are where we are today. But this time round, we’ll do our best.”